


[Excerpt: “Linguistic Cognates and False Friends in Vulcan and Romulan”]

by Reyka_Sivao



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Academic, Essays, Gen, Languages and Linguistics, Rihannsu, Romulans, Vuhlkansu, Vulcan, Vulcan Language, Wordplay, romulan language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-05-01 17:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19182253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyka_Sivao/pseuds/Reyka_Sivao
Summary: An excerpt of an academic and paper on the linguistic divergence of Vulcan and Romulan.





	[Excerpt: “Linguistic Cognates and False Friends in Vulcan and Romulan”]

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, this IS pulled out of my ass

[Excerpt: “Linguistic Cognates and False Friends in Vulcan and Romulan”, Reynolds, 2273]

Another notable true cognate is the Vulcan 𝑡𝑎𝑙-𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑦𝑎 ‘breaking of the neck’ and the Romulan proper noun 𝑇𝑎𝑙 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑟 ‘intelligence agency/secret police’. (In standard Modern Golic Vulcan, the usual word for neck is 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑢, with the -u being a phonological addition after the phase 𝑡𝑎𝑙-𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑦𝑎 was already codified as a semantic unit.)

In Imperial Romulan, the phrase 𝑇𝑎𝑙 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑟 carries the implications of having ‘a hand at the neck’ of one’s enemies (including internal factions that could pose a threat to imperial stability). This is despite that the common, daily words for both ‘neck’ and ‘break’ have shifted dramatically since their proto-Vulcan ancestors. They are now 𝑏ℎℎ𝑎𝑒𝑠 and ℎ𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑒, respectively. The closest modern Vulcan cognate of ℎ𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑒 is 𝑘ℎ𝑙𝑢ℎ𝑘𝑎𝑢 ‘choke’, after proto-Vulcan /kh/ morphed into the Romulan /hl/.

On the other hand, the nearest cognate of 𝑏ℎℎ𝑎𝑒𝑠 is, strangely enough, 𝑣𝑎’𝑒𝑠 ‘infinity’. The exact path of semantic drift for this pair is poorly attested, but does appear to be related to a poetic sense of ‘craning one’s neck to observe the stars (and by extension, infinity)’.

[For the full text, please submit a request through the Vulcan Science Academy.]


End file.
